Spirited Away: Revisited
by Ahro
Summary: CHAPTER 7 UPLOADED! Seven years have passed since Chihiro lost herself in the Spirit World, but one day she finds a bit of magic... ChihiroxHaku.
1. Prologue

SPIRITED AWAY: REVISITED 

By: Ahro

PROLOGUE 

_"What are you doin?!  Come on we're gunna be late!"_

Seven years have passed since then.

_"Look.  I know a shortcut.  Come on.  If we take it, we won't miss the bus."_

I had just moved to this place.  And my first day in this new, quite little town, was a day I would never forget.

_"Look, see we made it.  The bus is commin down the street right now."_

Yet, I have forgotten.

_"Hey.  Come on!"_

Just like I had almost lost my entire identity.  But something is calling me…

_"Chihiro!"_

…something… is calling me back…

_"Chihirooo!"_

…something……

***

RIIIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGGGGG!!!!

"Hey, Chihiro.  Wake up.  You slept threw the whole class.  It's strange how Professor Kawishina let's you get away with everything."

The girl slowly lifted her head.  Eyes fluttering open, she quickly winced as the unnatural bright light flew into her open eyes.  Her vision blurred but soon returned to normal as she looked up to her friend and classmate.

"Let's go."  He said as he picked up her book that had carelessly cascaded to the floor as she slept.  

Rubbing her eyes and swiping away any sleep spirits from her eyes she looked about the familiar classroom.  The teacher had left, as well as the students.  The room was empty except for the two.  She got to her feet slowly, stumbling a bit as she slipped from the tiny desk.  She had been sleepy for a long time now.  Her subconscious seemed to want to pull her into the dream world more and more each day.  What did it need to accomplish so badly that it had kept her from driving, and doing normal everyday chores?

Her parents had become worried at the suddenness of her illness.  She was taken to a doctor, who could only prescribe a special type of drug that would help to cure her sleepiness.  It didn't help.  Instead of any normal persons six hours of sleep, she found herself adding a good 10 more hours onto that.  Something was strange but no professional doctor was able to figure out what was causing her ailment.  

"What time is it?"  Her voice came out in a rasp.  

"It's time to go home.  It's 2:30.  I'll walk you to the bus, but then I need to stay after for some work I needed to make up."  He explained as she made her way to the door.

"That's okay, Sano.  I can make it.  I'll see you later."

"Are you sure?  

"Yeah, I'll be fine.  I haven't died yet."  She said with a slight smile.

"Erm… okay.  Talk to ya lata, Chihiro."

"Yeah.  Bye."  She finished off quietly as she watched her friend walk down the dimly lit hallway.  Adjusting her books in her hand, she retreated off in the other direction.  The sun that escaped from the outside and threw the windows lit up the floor.  Once students and faculty had left the building, lights were shut off quickly, allowing for the natural light of the sun to bright up the paths of those who remained.  Her eyes grew heavy.  She looked to the outside to see the soccer team out on the fields practicing for their big match tonight.  The parking lot was emptying, as the underclassman rushed onto the buses.  She knew easily that she wouldn't make it to the bus ramp in time.  

"Maybe I'll walk home today.  Mom and Dad won't know the difference if I take that shortcut."

The street was lined with cars.  The roar of people talking and engines humming was too much for such a walk.  Her eyes hurt from the bright sun, and the sounds were too loud for her to withstand.  It was the warmest part of the day, and the heat of the sun boiled down on the bare streets.  Sweat dripped down her face as she walked.

Soon familiar homes and small business's came into view as she rounded the corner, and as she did, she was met with a cool brisk wind as it whipped up into her face from the damp street Sano had shown her earlier.  Her attention was quickly drawn away from the street, and back to where she had come.  The main road had become bare, and each and every tiny brick making up the sidewalks had lost its occupant.

"That's strange."  Her voice escaped her.  It wasn't her affair to what other people did, so she turned her back and walked down this new street.  

Her memory was vague on this side road.  She had only caught glimpses of it as she walked up it that morning, as she was still slipping back off to sleep the whole time.  What was wrong with her?  Why did everyone else look so healthy, and yet she remained tired, all of the time?  Why?  She wondered as she walked down the forgotten street.  

Apartments lined the street up and down on either side.  She remembered vaguely that this street once held a river running threw it.  What a shame to have to turn such a beautiful river into a real estate paradise.

No sign of life still remained as she continued on down.  What was this strange feeling, and why now?  She thought as she stopped.  A quick gasp came from her.  She suddenly couldn't breath.  Her eyes widened as she tried to bring oxygen to her lungs.  A tiny ally seemed to almost beckon her over to it.  She ran half hobbled to it, still short of air.  Death was coming for her and there was nothing stopping it.  She stepped into the ally; the air then became thick and moist.  Her breathing stopped completely.  A purple flash drew her attention towards it.  Why was she still awake and moving?  She felt her chest.  No movement what so ever.  Fear had yet to swipe over her.  The flash lit up once again.  Moving now towards it, she rolled over garbage bags and a trash can to finally find a small, purple in color, hair elastic.  Her hand outstretched towards the shimmering object and upon contact, her breathing returned.  Her heart began to beat at its normal rate.  Sound had been replenished as birds chirped and the sound of cars whizzing up and down the street could be heard again as usual.  Footsteps behind quickly grabbed her attention as she stood up and swung around to see who had come.

"What are you doin down there?  Your not suppose to be down there.  Go on home now."  An old man cried down to her from the street sidewalk.

"Ahh, sorry Sir."  She returned as she quickly ran back up from the ally and onto the sidewalk, finishing with a quick bow to the elderly man as she walked back down the street.  "How strange." She thought as she finished her walk home.  

The familiar blue house she had come to call her own came into sight at last.  The walk seemed to take much longer than expected even on a normal walk.  

"Great shortcut, Sano."  She thought to herself with a slight chuckle as she loomed over the counter in the kitchen to look around the bend to see if anyone was home.  "Hey anybody home?"  She called out.  With a loud bark from upstairs, an albino german shepherd came flying down the stairs.  Tail wagging hysterically, tongue flying out of his mouth as he came to great her.  She bent down to hug the animal.

"I missed you two, Saika.  Where are mom and dad?"  She asked, not entirely expecting an answer from the animal.

"Oh, hunny your home."  Came the familiar voice from the washroom.  "How are you feeling today?  Were you able to get any extra help from your teachers during the times you missed class. 

"Erm… yeah, mum."  She said as she tossed her book bag on the counter and made her way to her bedroom.

Turning on the radio she unchanged out of her school uniform and absent-mindedly took whatever was inside of her pockets out and tossed them on the dresser.  Rummaging threw her closet; she pulled out a black spaghetti strap tank top and a pair of navy blue baggy jeans.  Going to her nightstand she carelessly fiddled with some necklaces and bracelets and tossed them on.  She then walked to her dresser once again and rummaged threw the scattered hair elastics and finally grabbed one.  Quickly throwing up her hair into a high ponytail she brushed it out and walked out onto the roof.  

Each day she would come home from school and come to the shady side of the roof and fall asleep.  This time though, she chose to bring out her radio as well.  Finding a nice place on the warm black rooftop she settled down turned the radio up a bit and drew her blank gaze to the sky.  A cool breeze picked up sending her hair flying.  She brought her hands down and around the back of her head, and allowed her fingertips to graze over the elastic, which quickly made her, shoot straight up.  Her hand remained settled on the tiny piece of thread.  A white shimmer amongst the clouds drew her attention up once more.

In a quick motion she jumped down to her balcony window, then climbing down the side vines she reached the ground.  Not sure of what she was doing, or where she was heading too, she knew she needed to leave.  Someone was in trouble.  Someone was calling out to her.  Someone…


	2. Greeting

CHAPTER 1: GREETINGS 

The forest flew up in front of her.  Trees whizzed by her inconspicuously.  She had no idea of what she was getting herself into, but something for sure was telling her she needed to follow this dust beaten path.  Her eyes suddenly slowed their rapid movements and fell upon a familiar statue that lay in the midst of the jungle of trees.  Vines and moss grew over the smiling face.  A bright flash of something showed that she had some how been here a long time ago, and remembered seeing that same statue.  The eeriness of the statue slowly made her draw her attention back onto the road and was soon lost in her running once more.  How long had she been running like this for?  Her breathing still remained normal even at the speed she was traveling.  Turning another corner she was soon met with a faint red blotched building with yet another small statue of the one she had witnessed not to long ago.

Her pace slowed and was soon at a halt as she walked up to the side of the small statue.  She looked down at it once more, seeing the two-faced figure more closely.  This one was also vine and moss covered like the other, but was smaller in size.  Her head slowly grazed up from the statue and onto the long tunnel that rested before her.  Faint memories flooded into her as the wind brushed over her and then returned, almost willingly calling her to the other side.

For some reason she didn't seem at all threatened by this dark tunnel.  Something almost warm seemed to come from it.  Not taking a single second thought on the matter she soon found herself walking down the long corridor.  Her eyes looked to the walls as pictures raced by showing her mother and father and herself when she was 10 years old walking down this same corridor.  What was this?

She soon walked into another room that was issued at the end of the hall.  It looked almost like the interior of a subway station.  Some random benches were skewed about the room, followed by some other unfamiliar objects as well.  Stain glassed windows and the largest door at the end let in the light.  The room was covered with a thick layer of dust and mildew.  It looked like it had been abandoned a long time ago.  The whole place was in terrible condition.  Her eyes drew away from the weary place and to the exit.  Light from the sun shown in brightly, blocking everything from the outside world with it's light.  Trying to block the light of the sun with her arm, she made her way out and into the bright light.

She was soon swept away by a cool ocean breeze that lifted off the grassy green fields that rolled out under her feet.  Her hair whipped about her face as she took her hand to brush it back, she looked to her left to see scattered buildings.  Each one was of a brilliant color, and different decorations donned each shutter, awning, and door.  With her curiosity getting the better of her she decided to head toward the strange place.  Something seemed to ask for her to come and see what the place held for her.  Memories seemed to flood into her, but each one was so vague in description she was still left in darkness on what this place had to offer her. 

It was a beautiful summer afternoon.  The sun had begun to set off to the Far East as she trekked further and ever closer to the buildings.  A small boulder scattered riverbed washed up in her way.  Little water roared threw this once great river.  Jumping from rock to rock and finally making it to the shore opposite herself she walked up the stone steps and was finally greeted by the many buildings.

To her amazement, each one was a restaurant.  She had begun to wonder if it was an abandoned theme park, but to the looks of it, in ways it wasn't.  She decided on venturing farther into the strange place.  But with a quick glance over her shoulder she noticed the sun was just about set beyond the many rolling hills.  It was a Friday, so her parents shouldn't be to worried if she stayed out a little longer.

  "Heh, look who's shown her face again.  Oh, Haku.  It seems your little girlfriend has returned."  The shadowy figure chuckled as she peeked threw the blinds of the window.  Chains rustled in a small corner of the room.  A loud roar like bark flew from the beast's jowls as it bucked about trying to get free.

"Well now.  There really isn't any need for you to get all rude about it."  She laughed as she struck the ground hard with a chain whip.  The creature stepped back but quickly lashed out at her once more.  "Ha!  And just think, in a few minutes that river will flood once more, and it will never dry up again.  Poor, poor girl, she'll be trapped here forever."  The girl lashed out in laughter as her once human body suddenly manifested into that of a violet hued dragon.  The two sliding glass doors burst open allowing for a brilliant blast of cool air to fly off of the water and enter the dark room.  The violet dragon opened its giant wings allowing for them to catch the wind and quickly sailed out of the room, while allowing it's elongated tail to close the doors as it retreated to the now dark sky.

The white beast stepped into the light from the setting sun that had just cleared the rooftop that was concealing it.  It looked identical to the violet hued dragon; only it left out the skin like wings and color.  It's aqua coloured mane whipped about its body as the breeze died down.

_"Chihiro."_

Chihiro walked down the strip of restaurants soon coming to a large upgrade as stone steps led the way up to a large building at the top.  Making her way up cautiously, she reached the top and glared up at the building.  Just then, a purple strip of light shown flying off into the sky from the upper most window.

"What is that?"  She asked herself out loud.  Taking a step further she was about to step onto the bridge that crossed over the boulder ridden path below when a sudden black figure swept past her.  The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as her eyes creped to the side to see more black figures moving about the grounds.  Ready to let out a loud scream and take off running back to where she came from a hand wrapped around her mouth and dragged her down along the side of the bridge and to the side.

"Shhh… what do you think your plannin on doin!"  Said a female voice low but demanding.

"I… a…"

"Oh just shut up."  The girl said again, Chihiro sent the girl a look, which she quickly picked up on.  "Hey… you look awfully familiar." The girl questioned, looking Chihiro up and down.  "Wait!  YOUR SEN!"  She cried out jumping up excitedly from where she knelt.

"Ahh… what?"

"Aren't you?  You have to be her.  Your hair, your eyes…" She looked down to the clothes she had on.  "Well your style of clothing has changed a bit, but you have to still be her!"  She said hurriedly.

"I really don't know what you're gettin at.  But whatever it is I'm goin home."  Chihiro stated as she stood back up and tried to walk away from the "troubled" girl.

"You can't!"  She yelled as she grabbed her back down into her seat on the grassy bed.

"The river has filled back up, and you can't get back home until it dries.  You should know that by now."

"Why should I know that?"  She questioned once more, still unaware of what this girl was trying to say.

"Ugh, forget it.  Come on, your obviously tired.  Let's head on inside."  She instructed.  The girl stood back up and grabbed hold of Chihiro's hand to drag her with her.  Chihiro remained.

"Well come on!  Hello, it's me, Len, your friend.  Yubaba's gone so you don't have to worry about being turned into a pig."  She stated helping the girl finally to her feet.

"Yubaba?"  She repeated the name.  The girl didn't reply as she dragged her back up the side and back onto the road where numerous spirits of different shapes and sizes were pilling into the large building. 

"Ahh… Len…" She said moving in closer to the girl, now clinging to her arm as the strange creatures passed by.

"Oh calm down.  Don't they look familiar to you?  Like there's the Radish Spirit and…"

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?  I've never _been_ here before!"  She yelled causing all the commotion to stop and stare.  The spirits remained quite noticing who this human was.  No one screamed or fled in fear.

"Ahh… nothing to see here.  Our friend just seems to have a case of amnesia."  She said trying to waver on the crowd.  They all soon began to pass on past the two in their own quite little way.  But the two were soon halted by yet another interruption.  A tiny green frog suddenly leapt out of nowhere at them.

"Hey Len.  Who's the hu—SEN!"  He yelled loudly as he hopped up to her to get a closer look.  "Well haven't you grown since last I saw you."  

"Not now Frog.  We've got to get goin before little miss wonderful comes home."  Len said abruptly dragging Chihiro along with her as they ran over the bridge trying to not disturb everyone.

"S'cuse me, pardon me.  Trying to get by.  Could you please MOVE!?"  Len demanded as she finally got to a tiny door along the wall.  Shoving Chihiro inside she followed her in and closed the door tightly behind her.

"Well glad that parts over."  She sighed as she stood up and started into the tiny garden.  Different flowers and aromas she had never seen or smelt before surrounded the two as they walked into the area.  "Well from here on in, it won't be such a hassle."  She finished with a sigh as she turned her head to see how the girl was fairing.  

"You have to be kidding."  Chihiro muttered under her breath.

"What?  What's the matter, you okay?"  Len repeated concerned.

"I just don't get what's goin on.  You say that I've been to this place before, but I don't remember a single thing of it."  She explained to the girl.

"Well I don't know what could have made you loose you're memory of here.  But you saved us all from a few different feats when you came here seven years ago."

Something then clicked into her mind.  Seven years… that was when she had moved to her new home.  She remembered her father had taken a wrong turn down a beaten path, and in curiosity continued on down it, but the rest became foggy.

"Heh, don't worry about it now.  You'll remember more as you stay longer."  _But if only I could show her someone she would most likely remember, someone who had stolen her heart away so long ago._  She thought to herself.  As she started out the back door and down the rickety steps that lead down to the heart of the bath house, the boiler room.

Author's Note: I do not own any of the above characters except for those I created out of my own head, and/or the storyline.  This is a fanfiction meaning no profits are being made off of this.  This story is only meant for my enjoyment in writing it and for your enjoyment in reading it.  I hope you enjoy this, and please Review and tell me your thoughts.  ^_^


	3. Advanced Technology

CHAPTER 2: ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY 

A blast of heat came from the open door, as smoke and fire flew at the two. Piles upon piles of soot was scattered about the room, as they walked down the tiny corridor of pipes and wheels. They walked into the large room only to be confronted by five small frog-looking creatures that were running back and forth from a large pile of coal and the furnace, holding shovels full of the black rocks. Beads of sweat spilled down their faces as they tossed the shovel fulls' of coal into the fire. Another strange creature who seemed to be running the whole boiler room sat at the front, mixing and collecting different herbs with it's eight long legs that could stretch and move in any which way without having the main body move an inch. Len moved easily into the room, with little fear of these strange creatures. Chihiro remained at the entrance, starring in at them all with fear and curiosity raging in her eyes.

"Hey, Kamaji. And how are all of your guys fairing?" She questioned the group in the room. They all just moaned in unison as they continued to heat the boiler.

"So you brought us a visitor I see." The eight-legged creature asked as he hit the platform he sat on with a wooden gavel sending the frogs off on brake.

"Yeah, and wouldn't ya know it. It's Sen. Thought I'd never see this girl again." Len said with a laugh as she turned to see the still cowering Chihiro. "You can come out. He doesn't bite." 

Chihiro gulped hard and slowly came out from her hiding place.

"Ahh… hello." She said with a great quick bow to the creature.

"Well, hello my dear. I see you've grown into quite a beautiful young women since last I saw you." Kamaji said politely, looking her up and down.

"Ahh… thanks." She said, now a bit less scared and taking a step closer she stepped down into the place where the tiny workers had been running back and forth from. Once her foot touched the ground a strange spark lit up in her head. Her eyes looked to the tiny holes lined along side the foundation. Something was missing that use to be here lighting the furnace rather that the frogs.

"It seems she came down with a case of amnesia while she was gone all those years. She doesn't remember anything. So make sure you go easy on her." Len whispered to Kamaji. He nodded in reply and looked to where Chihiro stood starring at the holes along the sides.

"Umm… Mr. Kamaji… uh… was their something else that use to bring the coal back and forth?" She asked still starring at the holes expecting something to come out and greet her.

"Oh, you mean the soot balls." He started as he shot a look to Len, who had a large grin on her face realizing that she was remembering. "Well you have missed quite a bit so let me explain some things in brief." He cleared his throat. "While you were gone, Yubaba had begun to loose her touch and fiery temper. And as she grew older, her magic also died. Another sorceress who had been waiting for this time finally made her mark and took over the entire city. She's a strange sorceress. Rather than using magic, she resorts to that of human technology. Only this technology is far more advanced from what humans had gotten too. And in turning to technology, she has made it so all of the employees are not allowed to use any sort of magic while they work. The soot balls I had put a spell on so they could work for me, but ever since Noria came, the frogs have been put to work." Kamaji explained.

"It's been terrible. But no matter how much we want to quit, we need the money. No other jobs in the city are hiring, and we have no way to leave. See she's a sky spirit, which means we can't even fly out of here if we had the right spirit to help us. And she has made it so only spirits are allowed to purchase train tickets out of here." Len added to Kamaji's explanation.

"Oh." Chihiro stated solemnly.

"Well let's try and get you a job here. It'd be better off if you stayed here and worked. It wouldn't do anybody good if we tried to conceal you from her sight, seeing as she has hidden cameras all over the place. Luckily she's out right now, so I'll bring you up to her room without much difficulty." She finished as she headed over to a small sliding wooden door and opened it. 

"Well come on. She'll be back soon, and then it won't be so easy." Len insisted as Chihiro then quickened up her pace and scurried over to her. Quickly taking off her boots she looked to Kamaji who had started back to work along with the frogs she called up to him.

"Ahh… thank you Mr. Kamaji." She said with a bow.

"No problem, Sen, and call me Kamaji." He said with a smile that was hardly visible under his bushy mustache. Chihiro smiled and bowed. She decided to wait to say anything about her real name. She wanted to see where this thing was going. Sen did sound familiar to her, but it still wasn't ringing a bell.

Len led her threw a tiny room and out into a giant inner chamber of the building. Staircases and elevators lined the walls. The building soared high above them, roughly around five stories. Len started off walking towards one of the elevators and boarded it. Turning around inside her eyes grazed around looking for the girl.

"Hey, Sen. Would ya come on already. This isn't a tour." Len exclaimed to the girl. Chihiro then quickly walked over to her, eyes till focused on the interior. Upon stepping into the room they were both suddenly sent skyward. They flew past different windows that showed many different scenes of spirits and many human looking people as well. Not to mention the assortment of frog type people. Only these frogs were more human-sized unlike the ones she had just witnessed in the boiler room.

"Hey, Len." Chihiro began as the doors opened and they walked out and into yet another elevator.

"Yeah, what's up?" She returned.

"Aren't there any other humans that work here? I mean you look like you're a human and—"

"Don't say I'm a human! I'm a spirit just like everyone else around here we're just lower spirits unlike the ones we serve." She explained in a huff.

"I'm sorry. I was just confused on why some looked to be human, and yet you all hate humans."

"Humans are messy and could care less about anything and everything. But you seemed to show to everyone here that not all humans are that bad. But spirits still disapprove of that race." She explained more fully.

"Yeah, that is true. I for one hate people. I started to drift away from being really social when I moved here seven years… ago…" She slowed in her speech. _"They said I had come here seven years ago. And supposedly if I was around all of these spirits, and then returned to being around humans all the time, would that really affect the way I was around others?"_ She questioned herself in her thoughts.

"See I told you humans were no good. Even you realized that after the three days you were here." She said with a grin as the elevator beeped and opened its doors. "Well this is it. Good luck." She said. Chihiro stepped out into the long hall as the elevator then descended leaving her alone. This hall looked a lot different from any of the others. Its original Japanese style was completely taken away as a light blue metallic metal streamed the hall. Small circular windows lined the hall, and on each side letting in beams of sunlight enter. Small little glowing blue balls floated about the room. One flew up to her face, and suddenly projected a holographic image of some shadowy figure sitting in what looked to be a hovering half circle chair with fancy red cushions in the lining. 

"So this is the young girl whom everyone has been talking about. You've been quite the little celebrity around here ever since you mistakably wondered in here seven years ago with your parents." Said a female voice.

"Erm… I would like a job please." Chihiro stated quietly. Not really use to the fact yet of speaking to air.

"I had a feeling you would come up with the same line that Yubaba wished you hadn't spoken so many years ago." The figured sighed. "Well come in. Not really very formal of me to leave you hanging in the entrance having to talk to me." She stated as the hologram disappeared. The tiny blue sphere floated down to just about ankle level and pulsated a bright blue. Then the rest of the blue spheres quickly gathered and formed a rather comfy looking blue chair. The chair floated back, picked up Chihiro in it and then flew down the hall at a rather fast speed but not to fast as where she would become to overwhelmed. A final door opened at the very end, allowing her to enter a pitch-black room. The only thing lighting it was the blue spherical balls that floated in the main hall. Suddenly a snap was issued amongst the dimly lit room and spheres surrounding Chihiro and the shadowed figure from the hologram brightened finally allowing for the figure to be seen.

It was yet another girl who looked to be human in each way possible. She had long blue hair that reached down to the small of her back. Perfectly straight and cut exactly even right across the bottom. Her bangs were wild and were dyed black. Her outfit looked a lot different from those everyone else wore. It didn't even look like something a normal human would wear. It reminded her a lot of the American cartoon of "The Jetsons" but had a sort of Japanese feel to it. The girl let out one of her arms and grabbed hold of one of the blue spheres that fit perfectly in her palm.

"Nano Bugs. Cute little creations aren't they. In the human world you've just recently been working with them. Can you imagine that this little sphere holds hundreds of these tiny robots?" She smiled as she tossed the sphere back into the air.

"Will you offer me a job?" Chihiro questioned once more. She really didn't understand what the big deal was of her getting a job, but she felt like she needed to continue with the game.

"I really don't need any more employee's. I have enough of them as is, not to mention you're a human. The only thing your good for is meat for the spirits to eat." A wicked little smirk lit up her face. Chihiro took a slight step back at this thought.

"Please ma'am, I would really like a job." Chihiro chimed in again, now a bit more determined, as this girl was becoming more of a nuisance like the preps she had to deal with at school.

"I'm sorry, but their just isn't any hope for you here." She smiled and was just about to send her out when scratching and clanging of chains in another part of the dark room could be heard. "I thought I told you to stay quite!" The girl yelled as she stood up abruptly. Chihiro's eyes widened as she noticed the girl had a tail, which was concealed from view when she was seated. "Deal with him!" She commanded to the Nano bugs. Around twenty of the tiny spheres whizzed over to a corner of the room where the racket was being issued from. Chihiro turned her view from the girl and then onto the pitch black area of the room in which the nano bugs had cornered. Suddenly bolts of electricity flew from them hitting something. Flashes from the bolts lit up the area. Screams of pain in a roar like state flew from that part of the room. Chihiro squinted in to see what was being attacked, and amidst the bolts she could see a silver scaled body. Rosy blood stained the once brilliant shimmering white of the body. The chains finally stopped it's moving and the nano bugs floated back into the main part of the room. Low moans from the creature were heard.

A sigh from the front drew Chihiro's frightened gaze away from the distressed creature and back onto the girl.

"Just sign your name on the X and you'll be set up with work." She said as she settled back in the chair. Just then two nano bugs floated up to her and stretched up in front of her a clear blue screen with a giant red X at the side. Chihiro looked at it confused.

"Just motion your finger on the line and sign it." The girl said in a low dried out voice as she sat back and painted her nails.

Chihiro did as she was told and traced the original Japanese characters onto the see through paper. Once it finished it disappeared and reappeared in front of the girl on some strange screen that had dropped down and was now sitting in front of her left eye.

"Well Chihiro. I'm Noria, your boss. And now your name will be 2029." She said bluntly as the little screen flew back up. Chihiro looked closer to see that the thing was attached to her head, a further inspection of the girl and she noticed random tubes sticking from the back of her neck and the tops of her hands, and strange looking tattoos were all over her skin that was exposed. She suddenly screamed out in pain as a nano bug came over to her forearm and tattooed the number to her arm. It quickly finished and flew off. In a normal human reaction, Chihiro grabbed it as blood oozed from where all the needle punctures had come threw. 

"Now you may leave." She said as she was suddenly whizzed out of the room and thrown onto the floor at the elevator door in which she had come from earlier. The door opened and Len stood their holding a bandage and some medicinal herbs. She quickly poured some on the bandage and walked up to her.

"Don't worry." She said as she wrapped the bandage around where the tattoo had begun to really sink into her skin and become engraved.

"We all have them." She said helping Chihiro to her feet. Chihiro stood a bit wobbly at first. The whole experience was way too much for her. Len led her out and onto the elevator. "Everyone still calls each other by their names, but when she's around make sure to call people by their numbers. Her nano bugs can't record sound we've found out. So when there around make sure you're at least busy doing work. But don't worry to much about the numbers." She explained as she led her down to another elevator. Chihiro boarded this one and then leaned up along the wall.

"This is to much."

Author's Notes: Yet another chapter done. This is the most I've ever done on a fanfic. Normally I've lost interest after the first chapter or the prologue which ever came first in that story. ^_^;; Well continue to R&R, and I'll continue bringing you more chapters. Feel free to contact me by:

_E-mail: uriko_san2002@yahoo.com_

_AIM: F00LmeTW1C3_

_YIM: uriko_san2002_

_I also draw, so I did some fanart of Haku in his dragon form. I'll post pictures like this whenever I get something done. So look for them if your interested in my art. ^_^ You can check out my other art as well at _

_maya-chan.deviantart.com  no www. It's just http:// and then the name.  If I put in the whole thing it will turn into a hyperlink and then you can't see it._

Here is Haku's picture

thumbs.deviantart.com/300W-96A096/large/indyart/anime/Haku_A_Stylin_Dragon same with this one no www at the beginning.


	4. Work

CHAPTER 3: WORK 

The night was a rough one.  Lin had taken her back to the room she was staying in along with many other people.  She had ditched her clothes and other little extras under a loose floorboard she had found.  She was given clothes that the rest of the crew wore and food to eat.  Then they all settled in for the night, but Chihiro couldn't sleep a wink during the night.  Just thinking about the fact that she was now here, in this strange world, working as an employee under some psycho path sorceress lady, who instead of working magic she worked technology.  Yeah she did feel like she had a bit of an advantage over many of the other spirits here.  Back in the "real world" she worked on computers all the time.  She had become a computer wiz and found her friends to only really be the freaks in the school followed by friends she met on the Internet.  She was slow on the nano bugs bit, but she figured if she could get a hold of one of the floating blue sphere's without Noria's knowledge, she could take the little thing apart and find out how it ticked and possible reproduce them under her own control.  But this called for some extensive research on the whole building and where every camera and bug was in the building, and more about the people in it.  She was just bogged down with ways of trying to get out of here, sleep resisted her call and soon enough she found herself being drawn out of her trance and swept back into the daylight hours.

"Hey, sleepy head.  We've got a hard day of work ahead of us.  Hope you slept well."  She said as she tousled Chihiro's hair and grabbed her shirt that hung over a clothesline that was suspended in the air above their heads and walked out to the bathrooms.  Chihiro moaned at the thought of having to get up after such a restless night.

"It can't possibly be morning already."  She wavered as she leaned up on her arms and looked to the bathroom.  

"Believe it or not, that bright bulb out there is the sun."  Lin stated from the bathroom with the sound of sloshing toothpaste in her mouth.  

"Ugh."  Chihiro let out bluntly as she tossed the pillow back over her head.  "Why!!!!"  She cried out as she jumped out of the bed and walked out onto the balcony leading down and into the bathhouse.  She grabbed hold of the railing and let her hair fly out every which way as the breeze blew in off of the grassy fields and off the river that surrounded them on all sides, allowing for escape from this place impossible, excluding powerful spirits.  Lin walked out and went into the same pose and looked out over the fields.  A smile spread across her face.  Standing back up she walked past her and slapped her on the back.  

"Well, come on.  I need to start showin ya the ropes so you can keep up."  She stated as she then started down the stairs.  Shaking her head she grabbed her hair elastic out of her pocket and quickly threw it up and as she tried to pull her hand away, a voice suddenly began ringing inside her head.  The voice sounded sad, and at moments screamed in pain, making Chihiro's hands shoot to her hears as if she could block out the sound.  As the voice quieted it slowly let out a hissing, "help me" from a raspy voice and then finally subsided.  Opening her once squinting eyes, she lowered her hands slowly and stood erect once more.

"What's goin on with me?"  She thought as she finally grabbed her shirt and walked down the long staircase to the bathhouse main rooms below.

"DAMNIT!"  A large bang erupted from the table as the girl slammed her fist down on the table.  "That old wench is hiding from me the one thing I need most to rid this damned planet of spirits!

"Zeniba's powers are still no match to us, even with your technology, she remains untouchable."  A young man answered the sorceress.

"But there has to be some WAY!"  She yelled as the nano bugs flickered and slowly moved away from the ragging women.  Silence fell over the room as the two sat in thought.

"What about the girl?"  The man let out, breaking the ever-growing silence.

"What about her!?"  Noria scowled.

"Well, Zeniba had a soft spot for this girl many years ago when she first visited us.  Why not send her out to steal it?"  He suggested, still standing stock-still.

"Hmm… you know, that really isn't such a bad idea.  Good work, Haku.  I knew you would come in handy some day."  She snickered as chains suddenly flew at Haku and clamped down around his arms and ankles dragging him into the darkness now fully awake.

"NORIA!  YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY WITH THIS!"  Haku yelled from the darkness.  Sparks suddenly spurt from the darkness again, as flashes of green and red colours of stripes flew at the dark shape that now struggled against his bindings.  Screams of pain came from the darkness.

"It's so unfortunate that I need to pump you full of drugs to get you to obey me.  It would just be so much easier if you just went by your own free will."  She said with a cocky grin.

"I… will never… go against… anyone to help you."  He said weakly.

"Ha!  Don't make me laugh, Haku.  I have the power to sustain a spirits powers and bend them to my will, and you have no way of bending it back."  She laughed out loud as more electric bolts struck Haku's ripped and shredded body.

"Well at least you seem to know what your doin."  Lin said as she sat down on a bench and whipped the sweat from her forehead with her apron.

"Yeah well, I'm use to it.  My parents really force the choirs down on me.  But it's not as bad, I get to use a mop."  She said with a slight laugh.

"Yeah.  Well you do what you earn.  Now why don't we go get some lunch?  I'm sure your hungry after all of the cleaning."  She said with a smile as she stood and headed off to the kitchens.  "Fried rice sound good?"  She called back.

"Yeah."  Chihiro answered plainly.

"Alright.  I'll be back in a bit.  Just rest up."  She said and finally left the room.  The room had emptied as people all headed off to eat lunch.  It was for once quiet and she could sit and think for a little while to herself.  She missed the peaceful life she had left at home.  Not to mention her friends and family.  She leaned over and put her elbows on her knees and tucked her chin in her cupped hands.  Letting out a sigh she starred off into space as the bright light reflected off the rather unusually clean floor beneath her.  Footsteps from down and around the corner suddenly grabbed her attention as she quickly sat up to see who had entered the quite room.

"Chihiro."  Said a dull quite voice.  Chihiro jumped at this.  She was slowly getting use to everyone calling her 'Sen' and suddenly someone calls her by her real name.  What was this?  She slowly stood up and walked to the wall that divided the room from the hall.

"Yeah, that's me.  Who's there?"  Her walking suddenly stopped as a young man around her age stepped out from behind the wall.  She took a step back as a sudden pain surged threw her head.  She looked back up at the new face as the pain began to ebb.  

"Who… are…" She began as memories flooded into her head but broke up quickly allowing for little to return to her.

"There's no time for that now.  Noria needs to see you in her room, immediately."  He insisted.  Chihiro eyed him suspiciously.  Besides the fact that he was absolutely gorgeous, he also had a strange aura emitting from him, that didn't seem normal for this person that she somehow once met a long time ago.

"Come now.  Noria is not a patient sorceress."  He abruptly stated and turned and started back down the hall only in the opposite way he had come.  Chihiro decided to follow this young man; still with the curiosity of learning this guys name, and possibly getting to know him a bit better.  She some how felt that his actions were not normally so stern like this, and that he was more of a kind, and sweat-hearted person, and that she had inner… feelings… towards this guy.  She shook her head back and forth trying to drive out the strange thoughts.  

_"I've never even been here before.  How could I possibly know this guy is possessed or something?"_She thought to herself as she finally followed him to a blank wall.  The same little blue spheres that lined Noria's domain of the bathhouse along with some of the halls in the rest of the building, flourished in this tiny area.  The man stopped, allowing for her to almost run into him.  Chihiro took a step closer to him, getting ready to give him her usual pick up line, when he suddenly called out.

"Noria's Chamber."  He said instantly.  The glowing blue spheres pulsated brightly and quickly gathered below their feet and created a platform below them, and suddenly shot them skyward.  Chihiro jumped at the sudden propulsion and almost lost her balance on the floating platform, before she realized that the young man had grabbed her by the waist and was holding her up from falling off the edge.

"Your okay, right?"  He said with a smile, as he settled her back up easily.  "You wouldn't have fallen anyways."  He started, as he put out his hand in a leaning posture and a blue glow held his hand as he rested it at the edge of the platform.  "See."  He pointed out as he stood back up right.

"Oh.  Heh, thanks, anyways."  She said blushing a bit at her clumsiness.  "Umm… what's your name?"  She asked politely, trying to see if she could get some information out of this truly adorable guy.

"You should already know me.  I'm—ARG!"  He yelled out suddenly as he wrapped his hands around his ears, almost trying to block out some sort of invisible sound that she couldn't hear.

"What is it!?  Are you okay?"  She asked trying to help him in whatever way she could, which at this point looked to be nothing.  Her eyes suddenly fell on some strange markings on his skin.  They looked to be red tattoos that criss-crossed on the top of his hands, on his arms and neck.  Strange, but she wasn't aware of any sort of cultures that are worshiped by spirits, so she chose not to say anything and returned to trying to see if the young man was alright.  Not noticing the abrupt halt in there ascend, the man stood up, completely fine once more, but the sternness in his eyes returned and he suddenly took a step forward towards just a random wall.  He raised his hand and placed it on the solid surface.  Blue lights flashed about under his fingertips and suddenly the wall disappeared in a flash of blue light.  The familiar futuristic hallway lay in front of the two once again.

"Come."  He stated harshly.  Chihiro jumped at the cruel tone in his voice now, and quickly walked up threw the once solid wall and followed up behind him.  He started on walking down the hall.  The blue spheres parted in his wake but buzzed around Chihiro's head in curiosity like they had never seen her before.  The two walked down the hall in utter silence.  Only the faint whizzing by of the spheres and quiet footsteps broke the silence.  Gaining up her courage once more she tried it once more.

"I'm sorry but I didn't catch you name before."  

"Don't talk to me."  Her eyes widened at this abrupt statement.  This same voice and sternness that wasn't really his seemed familiar in some way.  It was almost like a long time ago this man was possessed and had said the same remark to her a long time ago.  Her pace slowed a bit as they neared the giant doors that held Noria's chambers.  The two doors soon opened up allowing them entrance.  The man walked forward and with a bow began to speak.

"Noria, I have brought the girl, Sen.  She has come willingly, and is ready to comply to your needs."  He said as he stood back up.  He stepped to the side and cast his blank eyes onto her.  The two eyes almost ripped threw her like she was a rag doll.  Drawing her gaze away from him, she searched the front of the room for the girl.  A quick breeze blew by her, sending her hair whipping about her.  She looked about the room trying to find the source of the breeze.  The sudden scratching of some sharp objects on the floor ahead of her drove her attention back to the front of the room.  The breeze returned in a giant gust from the clawing noise as it slowly dissipated and a soft voice came from pitch-black area.

"Welcome back, Sen."  The doors behind her suddenly slammed and sealed shut behind her.  Without removing her gaze from the front of the room, the blue spheres laminated the familiar floating chair with the now visible Noria sitting upon it.  "I hope my friend here treated you well up here."

"Ahh… yes he was very—"

"Now down to business."  Noria interrupted.  "I have a little errand for you to run for me."

Author's Notes: This was a fairly short chapter.  I apologize.  The next one will be much longer considering it's an important part to the whole story, not to mention I've got a new character to introduce which will help in gaining more of Chihiro's lost memory.  Hehe.  ^^

_Well as usual please R&R.  I hope everyone is enjoying the fic so far, as it still has much more interesting things to bring to all of you lovely fanfic readers out there. ^_^  And once again, I'm not sure if the old link worked or not but here is a link to my art site, and you can find the picture of Haku by looking for the title "Haku A Styling Dragon" under the list of pictures.  Feel free to look at all my other art as well. _

_Just copy and paste that URL to your address box thingy and it'll bring you to the homepage. ^^  Well stay tuned for Chapter 4: Errands. ^_- _


	5. Errand

CHAPTER 4: ERRANDS 

Noria was rather blunt in the explanation of her errand.  She merely asked of her to take the train to some place called Swamp Bottom, and just to make friendly conversation with the old lady who lived there.  Wasn't much of an errand.  She hadn't even asked for anything.  Chihiro thought to herself.

"So you want me to go to some place and make random conversation with some lady.  What does that have to do with anything?"  Chihiro questioned.

"We had a feud that we've been grumbling over for the past 3 years now, and I want to settle it.  You're just the messenger girl who is bringing the invitation to come here for dinner.  Nothing really important."  She stated.  Chihiro still didn't really see the point.  Wouldn't it be faster to just use your powers or whatever and contact her? She thought to herself.

"Ahh okay, I guess.  That makes a bit more sense."

"Good.  Oh and I almost forgot."  She snapped her fingers and to the right of her the spheres brightened revealing a young man who looked to be about 2 or 3 years older then her, standing there, quiet and solemn.  "He will accompany you on your way.  Just think of him as being your personal body guard for the trip."  She sneered.  The man then approached her, and with a bow he recited his name.

"My name is Kane.  I plan to protect you from all threats that we run into along the way."  He said finally standing back up.  He stood a good 2 inches higher than her.  He was well built, all the right muscles in the right places but he wasn't too bulky like those in wrestling etc.  His blue hair was cut short, with wild bangs flying off over his forehead while the rest flew back and cut short in the back close to his head.  His outfit looked more normal between the outfits the employees or spirits wore and Noria wore.  She felt like she could almost relate to him.  He had on the normal clothes a human would wear, but like Lin had told her, they rarely ever saw humans in this world.  It was strange but almost comforting to have someone that most closely resembles one of her own kind.  With a smile she gently returned the bow.

"And you already know my name.  Chi…" She stopped herself as she quickly remembered what everyone else was calling her the time while she was there. "2029."  She recalled the number in a sort of disgust tone.

"Yes.  Well then, shall we go?"  He said as a blue platform made by the nano bugs quickly formed at their ankles.  Chihiro nodded.  With a delicate hand, Kane helped her onto the platform, followed by himself and were both swept out of the room.  The doors closed behind the two as they left.  A sly grin dawned Noria's face.  Here eyes suddenly shifted to the sound of chains grappling in another part of the room.

"Hmm… I think they would make a rather cute couple, wouldn't you say, Haku?"  She said as she let out a loud laugh.  

"Err…" _"Chihiro… please see beyond his eyes."_  

The platform had taken them back to where Chihiro, Lin, and many other employees slept.  Kane helped Chihiro once more from the platform as it disappeared back into 3 floating spheres and drifted off back to their designated positions in the building.  Chihiro felt a bit uneasy, as this guy hadn't said a word since they had left Noria's dwelling.  She always hated that awkward silence.

"Get your clothes.  You can't go dressed as an employee of this place, they won't allow you on the train, by Noria's orders."  Kane said insensitively.  Chihiro jumped at his sudden cold voice, that once sounded much like a pure gentlemen, of course she had never really met one of those.  Without a reply she went to the loose floorboard and uncovered her clothes, shoes, and other necessities.  She stood back up to face him and was ready to start speaking when he all of a sudden interrupted with his own words.

"I hope you don't mind if I call you, Sen, rather than your number.  It feels better to acknowledge you as being a someone, rather than a something."  He said with a soft, warm, smile.  His eyes sparkled with the light of the sun in them.  They drew her in, almost like calling her back.  Away from this world and back at home.  The suddenness of the warmth of her house flooded into her.  The sweet smell of fresh baked cookies cooling on the racks in the oven, the happy bark from her beloved k-9 friend, her father and mothers' warm, welcoming, smiles when she came home each afternoon from school.  What was this?  Was Kane, someone she knew from the real world, only that had taken on another form and name?

"That would be great.  But just one quick question."  She started.  

"Anything."  He said with the same welcoming smile.

"Are you human?"  She asked bluntly.  The words almost came out with little to no feeling within them what so ever.  She so desired for human company, more than she had ever thought she wanted ever before.  Her hatred to her fellow humans in her world suddenly had vanished as the desire to be around them once more swelled inside her.

"Heh, you could call me a human.  I'm as human as you'll ever get in this world, well cept you, of course.  But that's mainly because I've been lost in this world for so long, my human qualities have disintegrated.  That's what happened to your friend, Lin."  Chihiro's eyes widened at his last statement.  Lin had flipped out about her thinking she was human.  And to find out that she really was.

"What do you mean?"  Was all that could escape her lips.

"Well… if you stay in this world long enough, you begin to loose your original qualities.  You begin to believe that you are a spirit, and that you never were a human or other creature.  Your first life fads away into nothingness, while your second life begins a new.  To many it is known as reincarnation.  Where you die, and are then reborn as another creature or as a mere spirit that serves or is worshiped by that of humans, beasts, or even other spirits.  Humans though are a strong and ever changing species.  Our kind has survived since the dawn of time almost, and we have survived every natural disaster the spirits and gods have thrown at us.  But then there is always a bug in the program.  A riff, as many like to call them, where time is sent in all different directions and hackers can imply that of what they want to happen.  It's quite simple."  Kane explained as he walked her out the back entrance and down towards the boiler room.

"So, you mean, Lin, and you, have both been here for so long that the idea of being an actual spirit rather than a human being has been drafted over your eyes and is blinding you from the truth."

"If you want to put it in a poetic sort of point, yes."  He said with a grin.

"That's terrible!  Why would you want to forget that?  Being a human being is the best thing you could possibly want to be!"  She demanded.

"That's not what you thought when you were in the real world."  He said with a sly look in his eyes as he opened the boiler room door up for her to climb threw.  Chihiro starred into his calm, forgiving, eyes and then walked threw, figuring she would take this subject matter up with him later on.

The blinding heat and light from the boiler room flew at her in a gust of warm air.  Shielding her eyes, she clambered out threw the tiny crawl space and out into the main room.  Kamaji turned his head to greet his visitors.

"Well, Sen, Noria has informed me about your leaving.  I wish you good luck."  His eyes then shifted onto Kane.  They narrowed at him but then respectively bowed to him.  Kane returned the bow and showed Chihiro to the opposite door.  Kamaji let out one of his legs to stop Kane in his tracks before he left threw the open door.  "You had better not harm her in anyway."  He said defensively.

"Oh I won't.  You can count on it."  He said with a smirk as he pushed the arm away and walked out the doorway and quickly quickened his pace to get closer to Chihiro.  After closing the door behind him he returned to Chihiro.

"You had better watch your step.  These stairs are steep."  He said as he made his way up the stairs behind her.  Chihiro was becoming a bit annoyed by his over protectiveness of her.  She was strong enough to take care of herself, without the help of some _guy_ to carry her along the way.  The owner of this city was in fact a female sorceress.  She sighed as she started up the stairs but suddenly just before she lost her footing; a strong arm was their holding her up.  She shot her gaze back onto Kane; he stood there with a grin.

"Told you they were steep."  He said as he helped her regain her footing.  With a slight "thank you" she started on back up, allowing for his arm to slip around her waist.  I mean he was hot.  Why wouldn't you want this hot, sexy, guy around you every second.  She thought to herself with a wide grin.

They reached the top with little to no conversation amongst the two.  Chihiro's mind still sat fixed on how to get out of there.  Now that she was able to actually leave the city she was confined to, and take a ride on the spirit railroad, she might find a stop that lets off at Reality.  Kane showed her a small detour around and away from all the commotion along the bridge.  A small boat was docked up along the shore.  It was just a tiny wooden rowboat.  Nothing spectacular, and it was only large enough to fit two people.  After stepping into the boat and taking a seat, Chihiro's eyes gazed off towards the cement "sand bar" that jetted out from under the water.  That's where they were to go to pick up the train.  It wouldn't be long before they reached it.  Her gaze slowly drew down to the water as Kane began to finally start to row the boat out to the platform.  To her surprise the water was only about eight feet deep.  A large variety of different sizes, shapes, and colorful fish swam about below and beyond the boat.  Not one fish was recognizable that she was able to deliver a name to.

Kane had supposedly noticed her curiosity in the different fish, as he had soon brought up the topic.

"That's a Green Bufet."  He stated out of nowhere.  Chihiro's gaze drew over to him as the strange green colored fish quickly darted off as one of the ores stroked towards it.

"Yeah.  You have a lot of strange looking fish here.  I thought they would be some what close to the ones that I'm use to."  She stated as she looked back into the pool of fish and other creatures.  

"Heh, yeah well, your also in another world.  Both dimensions may be on the same planet, but both have completely different inhabitants that the humans have yet to discover."

"Haven't any humans that have come here, left?  I mean, if it was so easy for me to get here, wouldn't it be easy for other humans to get here as well and leave.  All I did was walk threw a valley and then over a water bed and I was here."  She questioned.  The question was bothering her for the longest time.  Why was it so difficult to leave this unforgiving place?

"Once you step foot on spirit soil, there really isn't any turning back at that point.  Who ever is in rule at the time, has control of what the terrain looks like, and the entrances and exits.  The way you came in, is now covered in water.  If you took this boat for instance and kept on rowing, you would keep on rowing for years and never come across anything.  And then when you looked back at the place you had left, it would look like you only rowed a good half a mile away."  He explained as they neared the platform.  Chihiro frowned as she scratched off one idea on her invisible memo inside her head.  "Well here we are."  He said as he beached the small boat onto the graveled bottom.  The water where he now stood was only about ankle deep.  The tracks were clearly visible now.  Her eyes ran along the tracks to find that they stretched on and on till they disappeared out of normal eye view.  Kane then helped her out of the boat and they walked up on the platform, which was then quickly met by the train as it pulled in to a stop, allowing for a wave of water to rush over the platform.  As the doors opened, a giant man in a blue conductors uniform, stood there asking for the tickets.    Kane reached into his pocket and handed the man two tickets.  Mulching the tickets up in a tiny shredder that was wrapped around his waste, he made off to the front of the train.  Kane showed her to a seat in the back.  The strange shadows of the other spirits on the train starred at her with blank eyes.  She made it a point to question Kane about these strange spirits.

The train was small.  Each car could hold about 20 people.  It resembled much of the normal trains she would take from different parts of the city back in reality.  The only really different part was its occupants.  She took a seat at the end of the car on one of the comfy blue seats.  She had to admit, these spirits had it good.

"Hey, Kane.  Who or what, are those spirits?"  She questioned quietly trying to not offend anyone.  Kane's eyes moved from spirit to spirit making sure as they were not aware of the two speaking.

"Their spirits of dead humans.  This is where they come when a human dies.  It's the afterlife for spirits."

"Heh, so spirits actually do live lives in the after life.  And this certainly doesn't look like any sort of heaven I've been told about."  She snickered.

"Those stories of an Almighty God, and Heaven and Hell you humans pass around are all just something to keep you from going insane on the streets and soon begging for your lives when confronted with danger."  He grinned.

"I was never religious so this doesn't really come as a shock to me.  And to think all these people go and waist money at Churches, and Temples and other religious houses.  All for nothing."  She grinned.

"Well don't get to cocky about all this.  Who knows if there is an almighty God?  Just because we haven't seen one, doesn't mean there isn't one.  I mean, there are God's of water and fire.  I'm sure theirs a boss somewhere."  He grinned.  Chihiro shrugged.  

"I still don't really believe in any of it."  She replied, still a little unsure about the whole religion bit, like usual.

"Well, don't make any rash decisions just yet."  He smiled.  His eyes sparkled in the light of the sun as the train bumped along the track.  With his gentle smile and attitude, she felt herself slowly being drawn closer to him.  She almost even felt like she was begging to fall in _love_ with him.

***

An evil grin spread across the girl's face, as the strange blue spheres illuminated her face with their aquaish light.

"This is going so well.  The girl is completely clueless as to what Kane is trying to do.  And to think, soon I'll have Zeniba out of the way.  Soon, all of you little humans will feel my wrath, and Earth will be under my command."  She laughed evilly.  

"You wanted me, Noria."  Said a dull, drawn out voice from the darkness.  She stopped her excessive laughter, and standing up she walked up to the dark figure.  Snapping her fingers, spheres lit up the area where she stood, and Haku was suddenly directly in front of her.  She brought her hand up and moved a finger up along his cheek, as his eyes starred bluntly at her with little reaction to her cold touch.

"Why yes, Haku.  I would like for you to go and keep an eye out on our little friends.  Stay out of sight and out of mind.  We don't need the girl to regain her lost memories of this place, and you."  She said with a smile.  The lights went out and in a gust of wind a long silvery stream flew out of the open windows and closing them behind her.  With an evil grin she walked to a hidden room behind a wall.  A see threw tube holding some strange green liquid, which illuminated the entire room, contained a strange dark figure.  His naked body was wrapped up in what looked like skin like wings that protruded from his back.  Tubes entered and exited from his body, with each one pulsating something from and into his frail body.  Noria walked up to the glass and rested her right hand upon it.

"Just a little longer, my love.  I will soon have the power to free you from this state that witch Yubaba cast on you.  Just a little longer."  

_Author's Note:  Well sorry for taking so long.  School was ending and I had all of my Finals to cram for, which meant little time to type the story.  Well right now I would like to thank all of you for reviewing and sticking with me.  Keep the reviews coming for faster updates.  I take criticism as a great source of help in writing my fics, so please feel free to criticize.  But hopefully, my stuff isn't that bad. XD Well stay tuned for Chapter 5: Zeniba's.  And to let you in on a little something, there will be some lemony goodness later in the story.  **wink wink**_

_One more thing.  My little thing I wrote about religion is just an opinion, so no flames, all right.  Don't need that, nope. XP And I was pretty much making a shot in the dark at what those spirits on the train were.  I mean they looked human enough to be spirits of dead humans.  It made sense enough, and of course Chihiro had to say something about them considering she wasn't use to it. ^_- Well just though I would clear that up.****_


	6. Zeniba's

CHAPTER 5: ZENIBA'S 

"Well here we are."  Kane said as he stood up and stretched after the long train ride.  It seemed like they had been riding for a good three hours since they left.  Not to mention it had also grown dark.  Chihiro's eyes looked out the window as they walked to the door to get off.  The name of Swamp Bottom certainly fit the outlook of the place.  A tiny road from the stop reached out into a dense jungle of trees, and on either side murky waters swept out around them.  The train soon left in a cloud of dust from the now dry earth it rolled along, leaving the two to bare their dark surroundings.

"Man, who would want to live out in this?"  Chihiro questioned as she tried to swat away the different flying insects.

"It's not as bad as we go further into the bog.  Come on.  We don't want Zeniba to wait much longer than we have to, right."  He said with his usual cocky smile, as he then started off walking down the winding pathway.

The two had remained quite during their little trek.  A sort of feeling that she had been here swept over Chihiro.  Her eyes wandered looking for a friendly creation.  No light was brought to light up their path, making for a dark, and lonesome path to walk.  What was it that was bothering her so much of this place?  Noticing that her hair was coming loose, she went to tighten it but just as she reached up and her fingers glided over the hair band.  A white flashed in her mind showing a strange creature.  It stood on a hand with a long wire attached to it that sprouted up to just about her eye level holding a lantern to light their path.  The white light diminished as a soft yellow light came in and illuminated a picket fence that surrounded a large cottage, and fields of plants that stretched for miles.

"Well we're here.  It wasn't that long of a walk."  He stated as he then began to walk towards the building.  Chihiro nodded and began to follow but in doing so also looked to the tiny lantern that hung on the overhang.  It looked normal to her, but in this world it bothered her to see that it didn't get up and… move.  As strange as that sounded, and seemed to almost make sense for the lantern to get up and move about.  Shrugging it off, she ran back up to Kane, and followed him to the door.

Kane knocked on the door three times before it finally opened.  He stepped inside without waiting for a gesture of entrance from the owner of the dwelling.  Chihiro followed his lead.  The house was made up of three rooms.  The main room was large enough to be split up into two sections.  One held what looked to be a kitchen.  A warm fire was alight in the fireplace, and doing its job to heat the house.  A table and chairs stood in the middle of the area, while different cabinets contained fine silverware, and a mild assortment of foods, while on the other side contained a small living room.  A hearth was also situated on the far wall, burning brightly like it's brother.  Soft comfortable chairs encircled it.  A rocking chair sat in the far corner.  A large amount of coloured spools of thread littered the ground and a small table around the rocker.  A rather old machine used to spin thread rest up against the far wall behind the rocker.  The other two rooms, which rested in darkness, looked to contain a bedroom and the other a bathroom.

Chihiro, now satisfied with her surroundings, looked back to Kane who had finally began to speak, as he had seemed to be also be taking in his surroundings.

"Zeniba!"  Was all he was able to get out till an old lady emerged from the dark bedroom.

"Yes, yes, my dears.  So glad you could make it.  Oh, Chihiro.  Look at how much you've grown.  I was wondering when you would be returning to us."  Chihiro just stood there in shock.  This woman was huge.  She reminded Chihiro much of a miniature giant.  Her head was as wide as her arm.  The lady just grinned at her.  "I see you were able to find that old elastic your friends wove together for you from so long ago.  And if looks like that magic was able to bring you back to us just as I had planned."  She stopped and then returned to talking to all of them together rather than just Chihiro.  "Come now, would you two like some tea."  She turned from Chihiro and walked over to the tiny kitchen.  Kane had already settled himself done in one of the chairs along the table.  And was already speaking to her in a rushed sort of way.

"We don't have a lot of time.  You know very well that Noria is not a patient person."

"Yes, I know, Kane.  But just because she was able to remove my sister from her place doesn't give her the right to—Oh No-face."  Chihiro was about to take a seat when a strange black figure formed out of nowhere in front of her.  It wore a really strange mask that bore a sort of eerie smile upon it.  It looked down at her and then began to motion in a happy sort of way as it pulled the seat out for her.  She smiled wearily at it, unsure as of what to do.  She finally landed on the decision to take the seat.  The creature referred to as No-face then drifted over to her left and put out its "hands".  Chihiro remained to stare at it unsure of what to do.  Then suddenly multi-coloured elastics spewed from his hands.

"Yes, No-face wove all of those for you.  Ever since I told him you'd be returning to us he went straight to work on them."  Zeniba said with a laugh.

"Ahh… thank you."  She said still a bit uneasy as No-face placed the elastics (23) onto the table in front of her.  He then swept over to Zeniba and took over her job of making the tea as to allow her to return to her guests.

"Now then, I suspect Noria wants to see me once again, am I right?"  Zeniba began.

"Yes.  She requires your presence this coming Saturday.  Be there no later then 8 o'clock.  We will be—"

"Granny."  Everything stopped as Chihiro muttered this word.  A sort of confused and worried look mixed together formed on Kane's face.  While a soft smile dawned Zeniba's.  No-face remained the same.

"Yes, Chihiro.  I'm glad you still remember that small request I asked of you so many years ago."  Her soft smile was penetrating.  As if it was trying to return something to her that she had forgotten.  "For I fear ever since you lost that little ounce of magic that was left insider your hair piece, you also lost your memories of this place.  Luckily enough I was able to have Haku return to his river, which then lured you to it."

"What do you mean?  What river?  What lured me to it?  I haven't gone past any river since I first passed the tiny one when I first entered here."  Chihiro demanded, not enjoying the idea of having to utter so many questioned at once.

"It's late.  We have to get going."  Kane had jumped up from his seat and had headed across the table and quickly helped Chihiro to her feet.

"Hey, wait a minute.  I've got questions that need to be answered.  I'm not leaving."

"You know enough already!"

"Like hell I do!  If I did loose my memories of this place, and if I really have been here before, I want to know why I lost them!  You have no right to keep me from knowing this!"  

"That's enough now."  Neither of the two had noticed that Zeniba had gotten to her feet.  "Chihiro, you'll find out more soon enough.  It's not healthy to be given so much information at once.  I suggest you do as Kane says."  Chihiro looked to Zeniba in amazement.  Here she thought Zeniba would be on her side, and instead she's agreeing with Kane.  Chihiro eyed Zeniba suspiciously.  She just continued to smile at her.  Kane took hold of Chihiro's arm and dragged her along towards the door.  He opened it for her, and waited.  Chihiro's gaze still rested on Zeniba, like she was going to say something of reassurance, which never came.  Instead…  "Use the trees for guidance."  Was all she told her, as an impatient Kane quickly whisked her out the door.

What was that suppose to mean, 'Use the trees as guidance'?  Chihiro questioned herself as she absentmindedly starred up at the trees thinking they would some how form an answer to all her questions.  But just as she did so, a snake like, silvery dragon appeared amongst the branches.  It's blue eyes gazed down at her.  It's Aqua mane blowing about its lean neck with the gentle breeze.

"Haku?"  And at the slight utter of the name, the dragon had disappeared into the darkest recess amongst the trees.  Kane had stopped walking ahead of her as he must have noticed her sudden stop in forward movement.  As her empty gaze still rested on where the dragon once stood.

"What are you gazing at?  Come on, we need to go.  I have to report to Noria.  And this field trip is over."  He said with a rather angry tone as he once again grabbed Chihiro's arm in a tight grip.  She grimaced as she was brought back to reality at the sudden jolt of pain in her arm.  She looked to Kane with rage in her eyes as if ready to nail him in the head with a sharp swing at his rudeness until she noticed he was rummaging around in his pocket.  And in a split second as his hand finally finished it's groping and landed on what it was looking for, were they swept away from the forest enclosed path and landed at the entrance of the bath house.

"I have to report back to Noria.  Be quiet, and return to your sleeping quarters.  It's late and you need to get back to work tomorrow morning."  And with that he had disappear into the bathhouse, leaving Chihiro to be by herself.

"Heh, stupid fool.  I'll just be leaving now."  She said with a smirk of victory as she turned to head back down the path, only to quickly be met face to face with…

"Lin!"

"Sen. What are you doing out here?  Come on.  If one of Noria's bugs see you out here alone you'll find yourself dead."

"There are worse things."  Lin just starred at her at this remark.

"Come on.  Kamaji wants to talk to you, too."  Lin yanked her down the stairs towards the boiler room.  God, how she hated these stairs.  "So… how was it?"  Lin finally spoke breaking the small bit of awkward silence between them.

"How was what?"  Chihiro questioned, starring at her friend like she had just grown another head.

"Ugh, how was the journey with _Kane_?"  She said his name like he was some sort of god.    "He's amazing, isn't he?  Uh, what I would have given to have been in your place."

"Heh, I would have gladly traded places with you.  He was a complete asshole.  The only thing he's got is looks, which hide a hideous interior.  He was great the first half of the journey, then he just showed his true colors.  Now I remember the real reason why I turned from that crowd of humans long ago."  Lin just starred at her.

"Boy, you certainly are full of it."  She finished after a cold silence fell between them.  Chihiro looked at her stunned as the two entered the still steaming hot boiler room, even though the furnace had been shut off hours ago.  The two stepped in to what looked like a slumber party.  The tiny frogmen had rolled out their sleeping bags in the tiny square area where they had once been running back and forth from a pile of coal and the flame shooting jaws of the furnace, and were now all sleeping deeply.

"Oh, wonderful, your back.  Kane didn't hurt you did he?"  Chihiro ignored Lin's groan as she went to reply to Kamaji.

"No.  Not in anyway I couldn't have killed him for afterward."

"Em… Kane is no good.  Your going to have to keep a close watch on him whenever he's near.  He's not the type of person you normally make friends with.  Oh, and I trust you saw Haku while you were out."  At this Lin decided to end her silence.

"What!  Haku!  But he hasn't been seen for ages.  Everyone thinks he's dead."

"No he's as much alive as you and me.  He's just been under Noria's control.  I've tried to get in touch with him but I've had little luck."

"Ahh…. Haku!  How can I see him!  If you've been trying to contact him, you must know of a way I can get to him!"  Chihiro urged, with little understanding of why she was so eager to find him.  Kamaji's face drew on what looked to be a smile, considering the large bristle mustache he was wearing covered the majority of it.

"Does this mean you've gained some of your memories?"  Kamaji insisted.

"I don't know.  Maybe after seeing that dragon in the trees triggered something.  I remember vaguely of saying his name and—"

"That's IT!  Oh this is wonderful.  Our Sen has finally returned to us."  He said happily as he clambered on down from his platform over to Chihiro and hugged her greatly.  He soon let go and stepped back.  "Well.  There's a secret passage at the base of the hill the bath house sits on.  It was made to allow Haku to escape from Noria's dorm and out the back to remain unseen.  Of course she forbade me to leave the boiler room but I've managed to sneak out at night and I have seen him fly out threw there.  Only problem about it right now is that it's underwater.  Haku can go threw without a problem considering he's a river spirit, but for you, I think it would be rather difficult.  And then even if you do get threw the water you're met with a tunnel filled with Noria's Nano bugs."  He explained.

"Well, I'm a good swimmer.  I can get past the water.  As for the nano bugs… we could… catch one!"

"What?  How could we catch one?  They see everything."  Lin suggested now taking a seat on the floor.

"They can't see everything.  Well not 360° wise.  When I was up in Noria's room, I've seen how far they can see till they have to rotate.  I'm big into technology so I watched everything they did during the times I was either heading towards or leaving her room.  They have this red dot on them that rotates around.  That I'm guessing is the viewer that is capturing everything that's going on.  All we have to do is sneak up on it when the ball has no red spot facing us.  That's when we go in for the kill."

"That's great.  But what do you do with one when we catch it.  I have no idea on how to control them.  And have fun trying to find anyone else willing to help, seeing as since nobody here has been able to do anything about the spheres at all.  If someone did know how to either destroy them we wouldn't be under her control now would we."  Lin inquired miserably as she starred blankly at a wall now.

"I can take care of the technical stuff.  All I need for you to do—" Chihiro said talking to Lin now.  "—Is to get some sort of net or something and catch on for me.  Best to do it at night, seeing as there are less people and less nano bugs around."

"Yeah, fine.  And what will you be doing?"

"I'll be taking apart my CD player.  You'll see."  She quickly added at the confused look on Lin's face.

"One more thing before we head up."  Lin stated as she stood up.  "What's going to happen to us, if you see Haku, and some how do whatever your planning on doing to one of these nano bug things?"

"You'll find yourselves no longer taking orders from a techno wiz."  She pointed out as she bowed to Kamaji and headed for the crawl space and shut it behind her.

"I guess getting her memory back was definitely a good thing."  Lin said crossing her arms in front of her.

"Her full memory of the spirit world still hasn't come back to her.  She's only acting like this cause she thinks she may have found out a way to leave the Spirit world and return to her own world.  Unfortunately, it's not going to be as easy as she thinks it will be."

* * * 

"Well is she coming?"  Noria stated impatiently as she rested her hands on the balcony railing.

"Yes, ma'am."  Came a drown like voice from the darkness.

"Good.  And the girl?"  

The reply came slowly.  "She seems a bit more diligent to learn about her past here."

"WHAT!?"  Noria's tail shot up straight, her grip tightened drastically on the railing.

A quivering voice came quietly.  "But she still has yet to recall.  I was able to get her out of there before any questions could be answered."  Noria's grip on the railing relaxed a bit.

"Well then, you have done what I asked.  I had a feeling Zeniba would help her along in finding her lost memories, but the girl succeeded in what I asked of her.  Without her, your trip would have been just as futile as any of the earlier trips had been.  And now, Zeniba is coming here.  Finally I'll get what I've wanted for so long."  She snarled as she looked out over the sea.  "You are dismissed."  The black figure bowed and left.

"So, Sen. Looks like it won't take much longer for your lost memories to be replenished.  To bad by then, your long lost love, will no longer be around to share in that joy along with you."

_Author's Note: OMG!  Look I finally got the 5th chapter out!  I'm so sorry everyone for taking so incredibly long with this.  I ran into a really bad writer's block.  The only thing good about that was that it cleared up my artist's block.  During the time when I was writing the earlier chapters I had a terrible artist's block.  Couldn't draw a thing.  Then I fell into a lapse of writer's block, which cured my artist's block.  Lol.  And it now seems like my artist's block has reawakened once more. -_-;;  Looks like the peoples at DA are going to have to wait while you guys here at FF.net receive what you've all lost.  I hope you'll all forgive the long prolonged wait for this chapter._

_Well as usual, continue to R&R.  I appreciate all of you for still sticking with me.  Feel free to contact me via:  
_**E-mail:** uriko_san2002@yahoo.com 

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	7. Plans Constructed, Plans Destroyed

CHAPTER 6: PLANS CONSTRUCTED, PLANS DESTROYED 

'I can't _believe_ I was talked into doing this.'

// "Come on, Lin!  You agreed last night that you would do this."

"What!  I _agreed_ to help you!  Not this!"

"Well, you wanted to help, this is what I need you to do."

"You've got to be kidding." \\

'Damn her!'  Lin cursed to herself quietly as she silently stalked threw the abandoned bath house keeping a sharp eye out for any sort of floating blue ball that could turn up around a corner.  

Her search had soon become an all out manhunt as she walked from floor to floor.  Not one single nano bug was seen anywhere.  Not even in plain view was there any of the tiny cameras.  Cursing while she lowered her guard and began to walk along the corridors with little worry she soon found herself facing the final elevator that brought her to Noria's own dwelling.  What with her past visits to that unholy place, she remembered of how their were a good number of nano bugs along the hallways that finally led to the front doors of Naomi's room.  She quickly thought it over, and finally decided on taking the risk.  Of course this meant she could be caught, but on the positive side, if they could rid Naomi from her position, they'd all be free.  Well… at least from Naomi's grip at least.

Taking two steps forward, she was inside the tiny elevator and all that stood between her and a whole lot of trouble was the tiny lever at her right.  With a squint and a deep breath she rested her hand on the lever and pulled it down, allowing for the doors to close and allowing her access to the upper levels.

'Gods, this was a bad idea.'

~*~*~*~

"Damn!  Is it really that hard to have on hand a small toolbox?  I need a friggin screwdriver!"  Chihiro cursed as she looked about the barn that contained the now sleeping pigs.  After Yubaba was thrown from her seat at the top of the towering bathhouse, Naomi had decided on leaving the pigs, whom where once humans, to their fate.  She cared very little for humans, but their creation of technology was one thing that kept her from taking any more humans that stumbled upon their world captive, in another form at least.  

With her patience wavering, she soon stumbled upon some strange tool that could be used for the same purpose.  Feeling somewhat satisfied she stood up to return to her bedroom where the other female workers still slept.  Upon standing, a sudden rustle from the bushes gave her a start, as she quickly took the tool in her hands in a defensive position.  The bushes rustled a bit more before a head poked out.

"Kane!?"  She said in an exasperated tone.

"Shhh… and put that down!  I'm not here to hurt you."  Kane said in a desperate whisper.

"Really.  And what happened to being Noria's little marionette?  Did she break you?"  She jeered.  She was far from giving into Kane's seductive moves this time.  Not to mention, it was always fun having a long, sharp, pointy object in hand.  And of course there was the fact that she missed hacking people up in her video games, that she needed a little carnage to suffice her needs, and lacerating away at his head would be perfect.  

"Look, I just wanted to help you was all."

"You want to _help _me.  Why the hell, should I trust you in _helping_ me!  You would certainly be the _last_ person I would want helping me.  What with gaining my respect and then turning around and showing me how you're just like every other stuck up prick I've ever met!"  She argued as she quickly began to storm off, leaving him to inhale the cloud of smoke.

"No, Sen!  Please."  He quickly moved around the shrubbery and walked a few paces behind Chihiro.  "I left, Noria's side.  I no longer work for her.  She doesn't know this, but I'm working as a spy now.  I've finally seen that Noria's plans are horrible, and that she will never succeed in continuing with them."

"Ha!  Like I should believe that cock and bull story.  Not interested."  She exclaimed without even a glance behind her.  Kane quickened his pace a bit more to now be directly behind the steaming brunette.

"Well, I just may have something that could help you."  He said bluntly, calling for a sudden stop in Chihiro's forward movement.  Then, turning, she looked up at Kane, but right before she could even open her mouth, Kane planted his lips upon hers.  Her eyes widened in shock, as Kane moved in closer and deepened the kiss.  She finally made an effort and stepped back, still staring at the man, feelings completely changed.

"Haku told me to give that to you."

~*~*~*~

The elevator soon came to a halt.  The loud racket of the elevators sudden halt, called for a jump from Lin.  Of course it was a normal reaction, seeing as what just rested on the opposite side of the door.  The door soon slid open.  Lin had herself curled up along the side of the wall, in the tiny nitch that kept her hidden from things that would enter the elevator.  With her net at the ready, she slowly peered past the wall, squinting dramatically, as if it would help her if she couldn't see the beings that would bring her fate to her on a silver platter.  But it wasn't long because once she was seeing threw her eyes normally, she noticed that their wasn't a single nano bug floating around the dimly lit hallway.  She stood up weakly.  Still a little unsure of what was going on.  But as she gained her full height, she noticed that all along the walls, their sat hundreds of nano bugs.  Each shut down for the night, looking easily like little toy balls.  Taking a few steps into the hall, she neared one of the balls and examined it.  The red dot, like Sen had mentioned, was nowhere to be seen, but it also wasn't glowing the unusual blue color like it normally did.  Glancing down the hall quickly, and feeling fairly safe, she grasped the ball she had stopped to pay closest attention too, and stuffing it into her net, while making sure that if it did come to life, it wouldn't be able to get out and quickly climbed back onto the elevator and made her escape.

"Well, that was easier than expected."  She stated with a sigh as she relaxed against the wall as the elevator slid smoothly down, finally coming to a halt at the floor containing the bedrooms for the workers, only this time without the slightest sound.  Lin disembarked once again and quickly made a silent jog for her room.  Sen had told her she would be waiting there for her when she returned, already hacking away at whatever she was planning on doing.  Lin moved silently into the room, but to all her efforts of trying to move as quickly as possible to find one of the floating orbs, she came back to a Sen-less room.

"Damnit, Sen!"  She scoffed angrily as she quickly took the net, and wrapping the nano bug tightly inside, she picked up the loose floorboard and hid it securely underneath it, before she set off to the pigpen.

~*~*~*~

Chihiro stood their, completely speechless.  'Haku.'  Was all she could think about.  With a cocky smile, Kane then disappeared into thin air.  A light breeze blew threw Chihiro's hair as he left.  In a compulsive move, she dropped to her knees, and clasped her hands around her ears tightly.  Her eyes screaming in tears as the moaning and crying memories flooded into every part of her body.  It was all true, every last word of it.  She had once been here.  Back when she had first moved to her new home.  Back to when her parents had taken that wrong turn down the road and wandered curiously into a life-changing world, that they would merrily forget about upon leaving.  But, Chihiro should have completely forgotten these memories, just as her parents had done.  Why was it that these memories, yet hidden, still remained with her?

These different thoughts and emotions she suddenly found surging into her quickly made her weary and unprotected.  Everything seemed to have come closing in on her but then abruptly flew out around her, everything just out of reach.  It was far too much to handle all at once.  Her heart was racing and just as a trig broke behind her, she spun around ready to strike as if a cobra.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Sen it's me.  Lin.  Put the pick down."  She said motioning to the same sharp object she had acquired not to long ago, and threatened yet another person with it as well.  Chihiro loosened up and sat down on the soft soil, breathing heavily, and trying to regain reality.

"I'm… sorry, Lin. You just startled me is all."

"Well, of course I startled you.  Just shows how you're always on you guard.  Which is a definite good thing, considering what we're planning.  Or at least, what you planned."  She grinned.

"…Yeah."

"Hey, are you okay.  You looked like you were having some sort of a seizure there on the ground."  She motioned out a hand to help the girl up off the ground.

"No, I'm fine."  Chihiro stated wearily as she took the women's hand and stood half struggled to get up, her knees still rather wobbly as she tried to gain composure once more.

"Come on, we should head back to our room.  I was able to get the—"

"You got the nano bug!"  Chihiro exclaimed excitedly, now seeming like the normal Chihiro.

"Yeah.  Took some time to find one of the damn balls."  Chihiro looked at the girl questioningly at her chosen words.  "Well, for some reason, they all looked to have disappeared.  Which isn't normal, considering I have always seen them in the halls at this time of the night.  But there wasn't any!  I finally took up the courage to go up to Noria's and I found them all… off."  She commented.  Chihiro continued to study her friend strangely.  

"They were shut off?"

"Yeah.  Well, they weren't glowing or anything, that's what I figured."  Chihiro fell silent at these words.

"I don't know.  Let's just get back and I can get to work on it.  It shouldn't be to difficult to get it to work."

~*~*~*~

"What the _hell_ is _wrong_ with this thing!?"  Three hours had passed since they had set to work on the glowing orb.  The only thing Chihiro succeeded in doing was destroying the one thing that kept her sane in this world.  Her CD player, well what remained of it, was in pieces on the ground.  Multi-colored wires connected the computer chip and the blue orb; only the nano bug remained mute.  Chihiro picked up the same wire she had been using for the past hour and tapped it to one of the jacks in the chip which was suppose to start up and keep the nano bug under her control, but it continued to remain unchanged.

"ARG!  Oh, fuck it!  It's not going to work.  I'll just have to forget about my wireless camera idea."  Chihiro stated rather disappointed in the fact that her experiment completely bombed, and she was now without a working CD player.  "You know what.  I think Noria knew about my little plan.  How she found I could careless, but she must have been the one to go and shut down all of the nano bugs, so that way I couldn't hack into it's systems."  Lin just starred at her blankly but continued to nod in understanding.  

Chihiro fell back into her pillow with a sigh.  "What time is it?"  Lin came back to reality and drew her gaze out to the moon.

"Eh… it looks like it's 'round midnight."  She said, but quickly jumped as Chihiro had suddenly sprung back up into a sitting position.

"I have an idea!"  And before she could say anything in reply, Chihiro was up and running out of the room as quietly as possible but moving with great speed all at the same time.  Lin refused to call after her considering the other sleeping bodies, but then jumped up and tried to maneuver around the others fast enough yet quiet enough as to not wake anyone.

Chihiro rounded the corner, almost running up on the wall seeing as she was slipping on the freshly cleaned floors, and with Lin in hot pursuit.

"Sen!  Are you crazy!  Your gunna get yourself caught!"  Lin exclaimed in a whisper after her friend.

"That's just it!  I won't."  Lin starred at her in confusion as they ran down the stairs towards the boiler room.  "I can't get caught, cause their aren't any nano bugs on that are running.  Stupid, Noria, she never thought of that."  Chihiro said with a grin of triumph as she burst into the boiler room.  The sudden racket of the door sliding open woke Kamaji up from a silent sleep as he turned irritably around.

"What's going on you two?"  He asked, rubbing his eyes as he tried to focus.

"I can't talk right now, I need to get threw that tunnel before dawn."  Chihiro exclaimed as she ran to the opposite door.

"Hey, hold on.  Explain some more to me what your doing."  Lin said as she walked around the still sleeping frogs.

"Yes, I would like to know what is going on as well.  Did your other plan work?"  Chihiro stopped at the door and finally calming a bit down, she turned around to face her two friends who waited patiently for her to speak.

"Well… first off, when Lin went to find a nano bug, there weren't any around.  She finally took up the courage to go up to Noria's and retrieve one from up there.  What she found was all the nano bugs that are in the building and the surrounding area, turned off."  Kamaji looked to Lin.

"That's right.  They were all off.  It was really strange, but in the end I took one and brought it with me.  We spent a good three hours trying to get it to work, by destroying Sen's… CD player… but still nothing worked."

"Yup.  But then I just realized.  If all of the nano bugs were turned off, then that tunnel you had mentioned, which had all of the nano bugs in it, would be empty.  Meaning I can walk through it with no worries."

"Marvelous!" Kamaji said happily as he stepped down from his platform and walked over to them.  "Brilliant idea.  A whole lot easier than your earlier one, hmm.  But I do encourage you to be careful.  Even if Noria did shut down all of the bath house nano bugs, she may have kept the ones in the tunnel still functional."

"Yes, but I already thought of that possibility.  See, I've noticed that the nano bugs seem to work together.  Everytime Noria would instruct the nano bugs to do something, every nano bug in that designated area would comply with the order.  That tunnel is connected directly to Noria's main chamber; making all of the nano bugs perform the same task.  So if, Lin was right about all the nano bugs in Noria's quarters were also shut down."

"Then the nano bugs in the tunnel would also be affected by the order."  Lin finished for Chihiro.  Chihiro nodded in reply.

"Well, I guess you certainly do know what your doing.  Well, I guess I should allow you to get to work, seeing as you don't have much time."

"Thanks."  Chihiro said with a smile as she bowed to Kamaji.

"Hey, I'll come with you.  I can help watch your back."  Lin chimed in.

"I, suggest you stay here.  Who knows what I could find.  Not to mention there is still the water hazard to get past.  And I don't want you to get caught."  Chihiro said.  _"I really don't want her to come.  I'd rather see Haku by myself."_  She thought to herself.

"But, I can be of some help.  I'm not completely useless you know!"

"Lin, Sen is right.  You should stay here.  If Sen doesn't return by dawn and you all set to work, everyone will be wondering where she is.  You'd do best to cover for her, seeing as I can't leave."  Kamaji pointed out.  Lin looked to the ground, rather disappointed that she had to be on stand by like this.

"Alright."

"I'm sorry, Lin.  I really wish you could come, but it's just to dangerous, and I wouldn't want anyone else to have to do something so difficult as this for me."  She said whole-heartedly.

"It's okay.  Good luck."

"Thanks."  Sen gave her friend a hug, a bow to Kamaji and then whisked out the door.

Just as she had predicted no one was around.  Her gaze drew up onto the moon and watched it as it allowed it's dim light to grace the water's surface.  It was so quite and peaceful she just wanted to collapse into a nice patch of grass and watch the moons reflection swirl in the ever-moving waters.  But she hadn't any time to do that now.  She walked up to the railing and looked over into the dark depths of the water below her.  She traced it along and finally came across a large hole along the sea wall.  From the looks of it, she would have to walk rather far to be able to just wade into the water, and time was really cut short for her.  Not even thinking twice on the matter she climbed up onto the railing and with a deep breath she dived off, falling a good 30 feet into the innate waters below.

She came up with a gasp.  The water was warm.  It felt strange to her considering the last few nights were fairly cool.  Paying it little heed she quickly swam over to the hole along the wall.  As she grew closer to it the water began to grow cold.  Soon enough, the water was like ice.  _"Now this definitely won't be as easy as I was hoping."_  She thought to herself.  Soon she came to the whole.  It was just large enough for two people so swim threw side by side, and the perfect size for a snake like dragon to fly on threw.  Taking in a lung full of air she dived down and swam as fast as possible threw the tunnel, not to sure of how long it would be before she would be able to reach land again and fresh air.

The tunnel seemed to go on forever as she swam.  She was beginning to feel rather light headed as she swam, her eyes flickering shut.  The cold water had quickly gotten to her, and she could feel her feet and hands beginning to go nub.  Worry and fear was quickly being draped in front of her, but all to late as she finally came to a raise in the ceiling and an incline upwards.  She climbed out, breathing heavily, and shaking rapidly from the cold.  After the thought of near death had fled from her brain she stood up and began to walk the vast hill that was set out in front of her, and as she had thought, their weren't any nano bugs along this route.

_"Perfect."_  She thought as she then quickly picked up her speed and soon found herself running up the slope, and soon enough coming upon an open room.  The room was dimly lit, what with the few slight rays of moonlight streaming in threw the steel reinforced barred window.  Their wasn't anything in this room that was worth looking at, but the rotten smell of dried blood triggered her to scrunch her nose in disgust.  A drained moan from a dark corner of the room, quickly got her attention as she went for the knife she had brought along with her, but then slowly hesitated, the moan sounded in pain, and non-threatening.  She slowly approached the corner, still not feeling that secure, she kept her hand rested on the knife in her pocket. A stream of moonlight slipped by her and rested into the corner, revealing a chained foot and a hand resting on it's back, also chained to the floor.  Her eyes widened.  She moved to the side, allowing for more light to fall on the figure laying on the ground.  Tears screamed from her eyes as they spewed out down her still wet face.

Haku was chained there on the floor, a knife resting in his heart.

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I apologize so very much for taking SOOOOOOOOOOOOO long to get this out.  Of course I was stuck working on my comic, and I finally decided to do commissions, and I've had a whole bunch of those that I needed to do, so Spirited Away: Revisited sort of fell into the back of my mind.  But it's finally finished.  Gotta hate that cliffhanger, huh. ^^  Your all probably thinking now "OMG!  SHE DIDN'T GO AND KILL OFF HAKU!"  XD  All I can say is, your gunna have to wait for Chapter 7.  Which I hope to finish by the end of this month.  So be looking forward to that.  And I promise I will get it out before the end of this month, that is as long as my job doesn't suddenly take up every damned minute I have to myself.  

_Well please R&R and tell me your thoughts.  And please check out my online comic as well_

_w w and then copy and paste it into your address bar.  Sign the guestbook and tell me what you think about that too. ^_^_

_Well that's it for me now.  Thanks again for sticking with me.  And like always, feel free to contact me.  I don't feel like listing all the ways you can contact me so just check out the earlier chapters.  I'm pretty sure their listed on chapter 5.  See ya on Chapter 7!_


	8. Blood Spilt, Tears Dried

CHAPTER 7: BLOOD SPILT, TEARS DRIED 

Chihiro could do nothing but stand there. Here was the love of her life that she had left seven long years ago, chained to the floor and hanging onto life by that of a thread. The only sound in that monotonous room was that of Haku's desperate breathing. Her knees shook rapidly as she soon sunk to the floor, still completely overwhelmed with the outcome of her labor. Haku's eyes lay as black as stone, as they starred off into their own demise. Trying to gain enough effort, she hoisted herself onto her hands and knees and creped over along side of her fallen love.

"Damnit, Haku. Why couldn't you fight back? Why couldn't you resist?"

"Because he let his heart fall in love, making him into nothing but a weak, broken, little, lifeless puppet." Chihiro spun around at the sudden apparition of a voice filled threw out the lonely room, till finally the owner of the voice appeared in the moonlight. Noria's presence darkened the room ever further. All hope drained from the room as she entered. Her scaly skin shimmered under the darkened moonlight.

"Heh, a lifeless puppet is he. For having someone he truly loves suddenly makes him lifeless. Your certainly one to talk about love, considering that's what your trying to achieve, but all through the wrong ways." Chihiro stated heartlessly, her eyes never leaving Haku's hand, which she now clasped firmly in hers.

Noria shook the insult off. "Ha! As if you knew what true love was. You returned to your world with your loving parents and forgot all about your, _beloved_, Haku."

"What was I suppose to do! I was young and naïve. I never knew what love was. If I had known what it meant to leave, and to realize that I would forget everything of this wonderful place, I would never have left." Tears steamed down the girl's face. Her hands gripped Haku's hand tighter as if she could keep his life force within him as it quickly fleeted.

"That's no excuse. As soon as you're born you instantly begin to love the first person your eyes rest upon. You recognize that person as being someone who will take care of you and protect you. You felt that for Haku. You felt that for Haku upon running into him on the bridge your first night in our world. You're a fool for denying it!"

"I don't deny anything! I loved Haku then, and I love him NOW!" As if on cue, Haku's, eyes flickered to life. His gaze slowly rested on the blind Chihiro. His hand clenched hers in return, which made her jump and stare down at him.

"HAKU!" A slight grin spread upon his lips.

"You… always were… quick to jump to conclusions." He said through pain filled words. A confused look banished the exultant look on Chihiro's face. Silvery scales eluded from Haku's body and left behind…

"KANE!"

"What!?"

The last few silvery wisps of scales faded into the atmosphere revealing the bloody, chained up body of Kane.

"This can't be! My nano-bugs reported to me that they had successfully killed Haku!"

"Well… I guess… not even your creations… are perfect." He gasped as blood spilt from his mouth.

"Kane. But… why?" Chihiro, completely forgotten in the midst of the confusion, spoke, as tears continued to flood her face.

"Heh, my… time was near… as it was. I promised… Haku… I would protect you."

"How can you protect me, when you can't even protect yourself! I can't let you die! Not for anyone!" Chihiro screamed in rage as she clung to Kane's hand as her soul continued to be pulled in an endless game of tug-o-war. Kane let out a slight, pained, laugh.

"Protect myself. I… can protect myself… perfectly fine." With a cough he continued, "Unfortunately for me, I had planned… to hurt Noria… where she least expected. But my plan was interrupted. I had… disguised myself as Haku… so I would be… allowed in without force. But by my… miscalculations, the nano-bugs had detected… my power waves… and quickly let loose… whatever weapon… was available." He explained through gasps of breath as his breathing became more rapid in failed attempts at bringing oxygen to his broken lungs.

"You're a fool, Kane. I though you had been smarter than that. You should have known that after you disobeyed my orders that I had put my nano-bugs to work in tracing your power waves. Always such a fool." Noria said with an elated laugh.

"Not a complete fool, Noria." With the little energy he could grasp from his body he raised his arm to face Noria and with a grin he finally added. "I was able to get you here, and unprepared." He finally finished as he closed his eyes and his mouth slowly mouthed his final words, a spell, a most powerful spell, known only by high-ranking elemental spirits. A spell that takes every ounce of liquid in an opponent's body and instantly freezes it and in turn changes it into its gaseous stage. Known only as…

"Sublimation." Kane whispered.

Noria's eyes locked in a dead gaze upon the two on the floor, her body instantly frozen in time. The full out experience of the spell was never one to be matched. To first have all of your liquid insides to turn solid and just as soon evaporate from each and every pore in your body was the worst pain anyone could go through, let alone to be alive during it all.

As soon as Noria's eyes locked up they just as quickly unstuck and swiveled around in the sockets at amazing speed. A deathly scream began to rip from her throat as first smoke like vapor began to escape from around her eyes. And then soon, the vapor spread. As endless streams of vapor began to escape her body from every opening that would allow it exit. The sight was excruciating to watch just as much as it must have felt. Frozen in time but still being alive to feel the pain as your insides drain of all bodily fluids and are evaporated through every pore in your body to be expelled into the air as natural carbon dioxide.

It wasn't long before the screaming died and Noria's body fell to the ground as a dried out prune. Her skin and clothes deflated against mere bone. Nothing left.

Laughing and a faint clapping suddenly issued from behind the curtain from which Noria had originally came through. The velvet curtains parted allowing a tall man with black, skin, wings clasped around his naked form emerge, his long green hair flowing out from behind him.

"What wonderful work, young elemental. I've never seen such a cleanly done sublimation spell cast before. Like they always say. The true greatness of oneself is seen on his or her own deathbed." He man mocked as Kane sneered at this new arrival.

"Wha-what's going on?" Chihiro questioned shivering from after the sight she had just saw quickly fad into a new reality of this new threat. She looked to Kane for an answer after he didn't reply right away. A gasp left her lips as a new dagger rested directly in-between the young mans eyes. He was killed instantly. Chihiro slowly turned her face away from the bloody victim onto this new menace.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I hope you didn't have any feelings for that man. But you did know that it was him who was helping that foolish lovesick girl to save me, right? He was also the one to first capture Haku and bring him under her spell."

"He-he was brainwashed. HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING THAT WASN'T FORCED ON HIM! That hideous creature pumped her evil drugs into him, which controlled him! Just like she did, Haku!" Chihiro screamed in rage as tears ripped across her face.

"Just as naïve as always, aren't you Chihiro." Chihiro's eyes widened. How did he know her name? Every one in this world knew her only as Sen. Unless…

Just as she was about to open her mouth in response the curtains around the small circular area flew out about them all. In a flash of silver she was being whisked out through the two glass doors of Noria's dwelling into the cloudless night sky on the back of a silver dragon.

A smirk formed on the man's face as he watched the silver wisp take off over the ever-darkening horizon.

"Don't think you've gotten away from me that easily, my dear Chihiro. You're already to late to save them." With an evil laugh the man turned on his heel and stalked off back into the secret detached room from Noria's dwelling. The sounds of grinding bones and tearing flesh stretching from the decaying victims behind him as his two dog demons devoured every last bit of what remained. The battle for the spirit world had only just begun. And the number of casualties was only to grow in number.

_Author's Note: Okay. I promised a while ago to have gotten this out. Did it happen when I wanted it to…of course not. I apologize once again for the long wait on this chapter. Unfortunately, it's a short one. The next chapter I can assure you all will be a lot longer as there will be more deaths, a little romance, and a whole lot more storyline to be found. I would also like to quickly thank those who have been sticking with me in this long story and lack of updates. It's been to long. Luckily I've wanted to spend more time on my computer, which is a good thing. So hopefully it will lead to more productiveness in the story. I do plan on actually completing this story. How long it's going to take to finish, who knows. shrug _

_Now I leave you with some questions to ask yourself. Who is this new character? How come he knows Chihiro's real name? Find out next time._

_Hopeful update date: Jan 31st 2005_


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